1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to sheet-by-sheet document and currency counters.
2. Prior Art
In general, in a sheet processing machine, such as a currency counter, a sheet feeding device is ordinarily provided for successively paying out or feeding, one-by-one, a large number of sheets in a stacked state to the sheet processing, or counting section of the machine.
In prior art document and currency counters, a feed-in roller was disposed below the sheet stack and contacted the lowermost sheet. As the feed-in roller rotated it fed the lowermost sheet to a paying-out roller, which, in cooperation with a guide plate and a feed roller further fed the sheet toward a pair of pulling rollers, which pulled each sheet at a speed which was two to three times the speed at which the sheet traveled past the paying-out and feed rollers.
In the prior art sheet feeding devices, the pulling rollers exerted a tension on each sheet since the sheet was not fully clear of the paying-out and feed rollers when the pulling rollers started to pull the sheet at high speed. Consequently, an undesirable torque load was placed upon the motive power means, such as the drive motor, which must therefore have had an output capacity to handle this additional load.
Therefore, it is a general object of this invention to provide an improved document and currency counter.
It is a further object to provide a document and currency counter with a sheet feeding device which imposes a minimal torque load on the motive power means.
It is an additional object of this invention to provide a low-cost document and currency counter with minimal electrical power consumption.